Daniel's TV Blog

I like TV and so should you

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Scrubs

Scrubs returns for a sixth season tonight. The Season five finale ended with Carla, Jordan, and JD's ex-girlfriend all becoming pregnant. It starts at 9:00 on NBC. This used to be the best time slot of the week. Cheers and Seinfeld used to be on then. Now it's considered one of the worst since it is up against CSI:CSI and Grey's Anatomy. I don't know why people don't like comedies as much as they used to. I blame Donald Trump for the ruin of Must See TV. He wanted the best time slot for The Apprentice. This was the lowest ratings for NBC Thursday since Cosby made it big.

I've been watching lots of Scrubs lately. It's on twice a day on Comedy Central so my TiVo gets filled with lots of old episodes. I love watching a show in a compressed time frame. The recurring jokes are much more obvious, like Dr. Mickhead and the Colonel Doctor.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The Good, The Bad, and the Veronica

Overall I've been disappointed with this season of Veronica Mars. Last night's Fall Finale started off with the worst of modern TV conventions: starting the show near the end of the story and then going back, in this case, "Two Days Earlier". I hate when shows do that and yet I completely understand. Mostly it's just lazy story telling but in this case I think they wanted a strong start for viewers who were hanging on from Gilmore Girls, which gets 75% higher ratings. So I can excuse this on shows which are not already very strong, but if I see that again on Battlestar, I'm going to hurl.

Back to VM. I've been confused and frustrated by this season, although last night cleared up lots of the questions. It was a very strong episode, better for its cliffhanger-ness than either of the season finales. We were gifted with the resolution of the rape story line and Dean Sitwell was murdered. Murder, most foul. Here's my good and bad list for the first nine episodes of the season (which is only having 20 episodes, BTW).

The Good:Ed Bagley Jr.: He's plays the recently deceased Dean of Hearst College. He started out at odds with VM, but she quickly became her go-to girl. This was of course his undoing since Veronica cannot be friends with "The Man". Rest assured the new dean will not be her best friend.

Professor Landry: He's Veronica's ciminology professor and he's hot! Unfortunately he's one of the suspects in the Dean's murder since he was screwing the Dean's wife. He had just giving the assignment "Plan a Perfect Murder." He's too obvious.

Stunt Casting: Patty Hearst played Selma Hearst Rose, heir to the Hearst retail empire (not media empire, different Hearst). Laura San Giacomo plays Keith's love interest for a few episodes. They worked together on Just Shoot Me.

The Bad: Dark storylines:The rape story has been really heavy and hard to watch. I'm glad it's over and we can get on to a cheery murder investigation.

Not enough Mac: She was in last night's episode but I saw more of her in Napoleon Dynomite which I watched on Thanksgiving than I've seen her recently in VM.

Judgmental Veronica: Why is she so morally superior this season? She judges her dad for sleeping with a married women. She judges Logan for being himself. She freaks out at her bodyguard. Let's try to be more tolerant.

Parker: Didn't she leave? Why was she so mad at Veronica all season? I just don't understand this character.Logan's Penthouse: There's no reason he should be still living in the Penthouse at the Neptune Grand. Buy a condo near campus. It's just stupid.Wallace: He's been useless this season. What was with the cheating storyline? That went nowhere. If you can't get through your freshmen classes, it's time to change your major.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Syler? Where have I seen him before

On Heroes last night we were finally introduced to Syler, the serial killer who some of the heroes have been looking for since the second episode. We also know a bit about why he is killing people: to steal their powers. But from when I first saw him, he looked familar. About half way through the episode I remembered he played Tori's gay friend from VH1's So NoTORIous. Although this made me sad since it's more evidence there won't be a second season. I love that they made him look not unlike Clark Kent at the beginning, before all the murder and brain stealing, that is.

Big Day

The new ABC comedy Big Day starts tonight. This show goes through the entire season during one day, the wedding of Alice and Danny. I'm not quite sure if this is an hour-by-hour show like 24 or just a slow progression of time like LOST. The cast includes two of my favorites: Wendy Malick from Just Shoot Me and Stephanie Weir from MADtv. It's a total chick show but ABC hit gold with another new chick show this year, Ugly Betty, which I'm watching despite the fact that she is ugly. If you miss it, check if the ABC website has it online.

Fall Finale

When did Fall Finale become an established term? I think it was last year with Prison Break. They took a big 5 month break after their strong fall opening. Last night was their last episode until January, less than a 2 month break this year. We did get to see 13 episodes before the break. LOST only gave us six. That was the wrong thing to do, we should have gotten 8. One third of the season is much better than only a quarter. There's not much of the story that can unfold in only 6 episodes. Tomorrow is the Jericho Fall Finale and next Monday is the Heroes Fall Finale.

Lego Star Wars II

I've been in an XBox induced coma for the past week. Instead of watching TV I've been playing Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. I try not to get video games since I know they will consume my life like this one did. It's a hilarious game, check out this clip from YouTube. On Saturday I finished the game and then started to catch up on all the TV I've missed in my seven days of game play. Now the blogging will continue.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

...you never believe me

"Every week I tell you what's going to happen and you never believe me." That's from the Medium spoof on MADtv last season. It truly describes the show however. Each week Allison has a dream which she doesn't understand at first, although it is painfully obvious to the viewers. She tells her boss at the D.A.'s office what she thinks is going on and no one believes her, even though she is ALWAYS right. Then they come together to solve the mystery and tell Allison she was right all along.

Irregardless of the formula, I still find the show enjoyable. I'm not big into procedural shows but this one is different enough to catch my attention. Plus Allison has a new hairdo this season.

Groundhog Day Break

Well LOST is gone until February. In it's absence, ABC is airing Day Break starring Taye Diggs (from Broadway's Rent and one of Will's bfs on W&G) and the incredibly hot Adam Baldwin (pictured). Adam Baldwin rose to the top of my hot list playing Jayne on Firefly. He looks much better scruffy on that show than as the cleaned up detective he plays tonight. I'll take him anyway I can get him.

If you haven't figured out from my title, Day Break is a Groundhog Day type show. Everyday Taye Diggs wakes up to repeat the same horrible day. Presumably he's the only on who remembers the events of the previous repeated days. During the bad day he gets framed for murder and his girlfriend gets killed. I don't know how this will make it as a series, but I'm intrigued enough to give it a try.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Extra Long Leg

No I'm not talking about some fetish, it's The Amazing Race. A few seasons back they started having these extra long legs which get broken into two episodes. This makes for a great dramatic "To Be Continued..." The exhausted team thinks they are done but then has to start over again with new Road Blocks and Detours. This time Phil didn't meet them to give them the bad news. He was probably still stuck in Madagascar since everyone else jumped on the early flight.

I used to hold the Barbi team (pictured) as my least favorite. They do lots of jerky stuff to other teams. But last night the 'Bama team cut in front of the cab line without permission. Doing jerky stuff to innocent bystanders is not acceptable. They need to go! The Cho's are now my team of choice.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

LOST 3.06: Run Kate

Every plan Jack has had to deal with the Others has failed miserably. So what makes him think his new plan is going to go any better? But Jack is an idiot and thinks he can solve everyone's problems. And now he's ruined Juliet's seemingly well thought out plan. Did I mention he was an idiot. I'm glad Kate slept with Sawyer. Also, I think this was the first episode without one scene on the beach. So here's what we learned:

Kate is still technically married to that guy from Firefly

Alex still doesn't know where that other guy went and she thinks he's dead

Ben cares a lot about Alex

And here are the new questions:

Does Jack expect Sawyer and Kate to escape together?

Will Kate run away if they don't let Sawyer go?

Where will the Jesus stick lead Locke?

Did Kate cash in the Costa Rica tickets for her ticket to Australia?

If Locke is all into this new openness, why didn't he tell everyone about the smoke monster?

If Picket is such a big supporter of Ben, why did he take the first opportunity to disobey orders and try to kill Sawyer?

Will Nikki and Paolo ever do anything?

Can I wait three months for the next episode or should I freeze myself like Cartman?

Smallville

I caught up on this season of Smallville over the past weekend. It's really much better this season that it has been in a while. The best is the addition of Oliver Queen aka The Green Arrow. He and Clark figured out each others secret rather easily. Oliver is played by the hottest guy on network TV, Justin Hartley. He's dreamy. He's only a recurring character so he's not in every episode, but he is in tonight's. He's also dating Lois.

Last season fell flat with Spike/Brainiac and several very-special-episodes like Jonathan's death, Lexmas, and the un-proposal. This season is much better with the new enemies. Clark was in the spinning rhombus phatom zone at the start of the season. When he escaped, a bunch of baddies got out too. Now he's on a never ending quest to track them all down and then he'll start his Superman training.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Jericho

Jericho episode 8 is on tonight at 8. While it's no LOST or Heroes, I've enjoyed this new CBS show. I've had a few problems with it, however. For one, why did it seem like the entire country disappear after only a dozen or so nukes fell? Why did the entire satelite television system go dark, especially since we just found out New York made it? If Seattle got nuked, it's likely Redmond and MSFT would suvive and they could broadcast up MSNBC. Of course my biggest problem is that it is starting to look to real and it's scaring me. Tonight is supposed to be the most real as the mayor's son rush to another town to get some antibiotics and get to see the chaos and destruction first hand. I'm also sick of Mayor Dad. He's annoying and incompetant.

For more escapist television, LOST 3.06 is on right after. Savor this episode because we won't get another episode until 02/07/07. Kate is supposed to choose between Jack and Sawyer. It's obviously going to be Sawyer since she hasn't seen Jack since the Palla Ferry. Or at least Jack hasn't seen her since then. I've learned that they hadn't originally planned to kill of Mr. Eko, but he was hard to work with and wanted out of his contract so it worked out well for everyone. We've got five new characters this season anyway. He lasted longer than Boone.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Election Day

I just got back from voting. I think next year I'll switch to absentee. My poling place is sketchy. The Simpsons had a harsh political commentary on their Halloween episode on Sunday. Ten years ago they did one of my favorite episodes with Kang and Kodos impersonating President Clinton and Senator Dole. "It makes no difference which one of us you vote for. Either way, your planet is doomed. DOOMED!" That was nonpartisaned and funny. This year Kang and Kodos invaded Earth and were still there three years later. Kang was upset they weren't greeted as liberators. The episode ended with random explosions going off in a vacant Springfield. Quite scary.

For tonight's election night results I suggest the live broadcast of The Daily Show and Colbert Report. It's live on the East Coast and once again we here on the West Coast get screwed. But at least we get the Oscar's early. If you missed last night's Daily Show, they reran the School House Rock parody explaining the mid-term elections they first ran four years ago. Here it is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FcZJqqA2AI

Heroes

Heroes is my favorite new show of the fall. It's got a big sweeping story and great character development, kind of like LOST. It's not as brilliantly structured as LOST, but it's still very well done. Some of the mutants are starting to meet up and figure out their destiny. There's still a great number of mysteries.

The show is doing very well. NBC has picked it up for a full season and is negociating additional episodes. A standard season is 22 episodes. Shows that do well are given extended season of 24 episodes. LOST and Desperate Housewives have each had 24 episodes in both of their seasons. This costs the network more money, but they get better ad revenue then with repeats or other shows. Back when The Simpsons was Fox's only hit show, they tried to pull as many new episodes of the creators as possible, and so we got the clip-shows. It was sad.

Unfortunately, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip isn't doing as well as everyone expected. The show keeps only about half the viewers from Heroes. It's like I predicted, no one cares about the behind the scenes of Hollywood.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Comedy Central Animation

Tonight is a new episode of Freak Squad. I couldn't make it through the first episode so I won't be watching tonight. I found the animation jarring and the show generally un-funny.

South Park was on last night. This season is as funny as ever. Last night was part one of another two parter. This time Cartman froze himself because he couldn't wait for the Nitendo Wii to come out. Unfortunately he was unfrozen in the far future, after a Buck Rogers montage, where they don't play video games and the different secs of atheism are fighting over him.

The other Comedy Central animation show is Drawn Together. This is still the best joke-per-minute show of the three. However this season has been surprisingly darker and violent. Captain Hero has killed hundreds this season, and his son destroyed the city with the hug-activated nuclear bomb. It's getting hard to watch.

Irregardless, there's only two more episodes after this weeks installments.

LOST 3.05: You're Next

On this episode...Locke lead an expedition to the Pearl Station, Juliet told the truth to Jack, the smoke monster killed Eko, and Paolo went to the bathroom. I'm not quite sure why they killed off Eko so early in the season. It seemed clear he was going to die from the flashbacks, where his backstory was cleaning itself up quite nicely. I still expected more out of him this season. On the other island, Juliet's powerplay against Ben is turning delicious. We know Ben has followers and Juliet even has problems picking a book for the book club that Ben wouldn't like. It will be amazing to see where this season goes. Here's what we found out:

Ben has the tumor

Ben is a liar and is a dangerous man

Jack wasn't supposed to know about the Tumor until he was broken down

Eko is dead

The plumbing at the Pearl Station still works

Some creepy guy is still in another Dharma station and he knows when he's being watched

And here are the new questions:

Would things be better with Juliet in charge?

Did anyone help Juliet make the video?

Who was the guy in the other station?

Who or what was Mr. Eko following since the vision said it wasn't Yemi?

Why did the smoke monster single out Mr. Eko and avoid all the others?

About Me

I love TV. Movies are great but there's so much more story and character development that can be accomplished in episodic television. Since I started unwittingly studying television over 25 years ago I've noticed many patterns and advancements. I will share my views, opinions, and TV news several times a week. Please leave your own comments.